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Christmas Green - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade
Green and red are colors that have been closely associated with Christmas for centuries.. Last week I shared how red became a Christmas color. You can read that post here: Christmas Red. This week, green, the other Christmas color, is explored mainly through the symbolism of holly, mistletoe and evergreen trees.
Earthy Black Friday Finds! - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade
Black Friday will soon be upon us, the official start of the holiday shopping season. To help you make that Christmas shopping gift list, I have pulled together artisan handmade items in beautiful earthy colors, most flaunting warm shades of brown as the main color. To give a gift that was truly made from the heart, shop HANDMADE this year and support small artisan businesses. I hope you enjoy the earthy lovelies featured below:
Bohemian Rhapsody - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade
It’s amazing how often my blogs are inspired by music. As you have probably noticed, music is, and always has been, a huge part of my life. For some reason, I have been listening quite a bit to the complete soundtrack to the Lord of the Rings movies. Heroic music for an awesome trilogy! It ended (for the umpteenth time) and I switched to my Pandora station. And . . . Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen started the mix of music. The song, which was released in 1975, instantly took me back to a time at university when several friends and I developed a Bohemian Rhapsody skit . . . and performed it at a university talent show! Am sure the skit was absolutely, undeniably horrible. But whenever I hear the song, it takes me back to all the hard work and laughter as we pulled the antics of the skit together. Am sure there is a photo or two around, but I have no idea where they are.
The Sky is Already Purple - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade
"The sky is already purple; the first few stars have appeared, suddenly, as if someone had thrown a handful of silver across the edge of the world."
I have always loved this quote from Alice Hoffman’s novel, Here on Earth. It is so very evocative of watching the sky turn dark here in the Desert Southwest during this glorious time of the year. When the sky is transformed for a few minutes into a magical velvety bluish-purple color, a multitude of stars come out to to play, twinkling away. Then the sky will finally slip into a depthless black and even more stars will appear . . . and, hopefully, a shooting star will streak across the sky. Another reason autumn is my favorite time of the year.
Autumn Browns - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade
With autumn definitely in the air (at least here in the Borderlands - finally), Mother Nature's natural cycle of life is beginning to slow. There is a feeling of drawing inward, of self-reflection and, perhaps, as bit of melancholy, as we begin to prepare for the coming colder months of winter. The colors of fall are everywhere, which reminds me of this a quote from Helen Hunt Jackson, as American author: "The goldenrod is yellow, The corn is turning brown, The trees in apple orchards With fruit are bending down." So evocative of my favorite season of the year.
First Artisan Item, Second Page - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade
The week since my last Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade blog post just flew by. Here is is Tuesday evening and I suddenly realized I hadn’t even thought about the post for tomorrow. Heck, I forgot it was even Tuesday! Not to fear though . . . there are so many beautiful handmade items in the shops of Indiemade artist friends, that I have a wide range of beauties to choose from. I decided this week’s post would feature the First Artisan Item, Second Page (as of my typing this). Even though the picks are widely diverse in style and materials, they all fit beautifully together since they all are handmade from the heart.
Relaxing Blues and Teals - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade
Blues and teals are relaxing colors, both mentally and physically. In color psychology, the colors control and heal the emotions, creating emotional balance and stability. Worldwide, the color blue is the favorite color, a color that is seen as reliable and responsible. Teal, a hue that is halfway between blue and green, is seen as happy and friendly, and is the most common color requested by photographers for logo designs.
Summer Heat - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade
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With the summer solstice rapidly approaching, I decided it was time to feature hot, hot, HOT colored artisan handmade items in oranges, reds and yellow. But before I do, (since I am a huge science geek), I thought I’d share a bit of about sunrises, sunsets and the summer solstice. The solstice here in the Texas Borderlands will take place on Tuesday, June 20, 2017 at 10:24 pm MDT. Most people think that, because the solstice signifies the longest day of the year (or the shortest, in the southern hemisphere), the earliest sunrise and the latest sunset happens on that day. But that is not true. The exact date of earliest sunrises and latest sunsets varies with latitude. At mid-northern latitudes (say Philadelphia at 40 degrees north latitude), the earliest sunrises of the year happens on June 14 and the latest sunset on June 27. The farther south you go in latitude, the earlier the earliest sunrises become and the later the latest sunset are. For instance, the earliest sunrise here in El Paso has already passed - on June 11 - and the latest sunset isn’t until June 30.
Circles of Our Lives - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade
Sometimes the most mundane of things in life suddenly captures my imagination. The other day, when I was outside with Seamus, the very handsome Shadow Dog, I started thinking about circles (yes, my brain does shoot off on a tangent sometimes!). You see circles everywhere: most door knobs, most coins, the sun and moon, the pupil of most animal's eyes and the wheel, just to name a few. Most people don't give them a second thought unless you're a mathematician, an architect or an artist. As a gardener and an avid observer of nature, I daily feel the circle of life all around me on a more cosmological scale: day/night, phases of the moon, seasons, life/death. And then I remembered a Wendell Berry poem, called "Circles of Our Lives", which I will share at the end of this post. This led me to do some reading about circles (inquiring minds want to know!) and copious note taking.
The Ocean Stirs the Heart - Wonderful Handmade Wednesday on Indiemade
The ocean stirs the heart, inspires the imagination and brings eternal joy to the soul - Robert Wyland (marine life artist)
This past week, I was able to reconnect with the ocean when visiting the Coos Bay / Bandon, Oregon area. While my husband golfed, I explored the amazing land that is southwest Oregon. From huge trees to craggy cliffs by the sea; from the multitudes of birds to the fog interlaced with sunshine, I was taken with the landscape . . . and the very friendly people. And I was actually able to meet a long-time artist friend face-to-face for the first time. What a lovely person Sue is!
